Pennsylvania Quaker Spencerian Trueloves Knot

Circa Mid 19th Century: The Pennsylvania Quakers began using the true lover's knot drawing as a love token or marriage proposal in the mid 1700s and carried this practice for the next century. This complicated drawing was based on an actual ornamental knot known as a true lover's knot or truelove knot that was used as far back as the 16th century as a love token and symbolized true love without end. This 9 1/4"H 7 5/8" example housed in a brown painted 12 1/2"H x 10 3/4"W frame is done in Spencerian script, which dates it to the mid 19th century, when this script came into popular use in rural America. This "Trueloves Knot" reads:

"To the fairest of the female sex: I send an emblem of my love: Without crossing winding turning in and out: Never ceasing turning roundabout: As you see it links and turns here: So does thy beauty prove to be a snare: Therefore dear creature look with pity down: And do not on a faithful servant frown: But pardon him that doth thy love desire: And doth delight thy beauty to admire: And dear creature let thy goodness shine: In beams of comfort from a pensive mind: So that the ravished soul raised by thy smiles: May pass to rural bliss forgetting all its toils: That true love may best in blessing action: And evermore be tending to perfection: Then all the crosses in the note of love will be disdained if constant prove."

This touching hand scripted love letter that winds about the page and is embellished with colorful hearts, boxes, and Spencerian cartouches is an extremely similar variant on a dated 1801 example made by Quaker schoolmaster Hugh Pugh and sent to twenty-year-old Mary Fisher, showing that this verse was in use at the beginning of the 19th century at the latest. Not many of these true lover's knots have survived due to their fragile nature, and this one remains in very good condition with expected staining and overall toning, having been recently archivally preserved so no further foxing will occur. This Quaker love token has excellent provenance, coming from the collection of Carol Schulman and, earlier, the landmark collection of Tom and Carolyn Porter, which was sold at Garth's in 2004.